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Critical Security Updates - any particular order?

linuxwannabee

Posted 02 May 2007 - 02:06 PM

linuxwannabee

Member

Member

125 posts

I have downloaded Win2K updates individually from Microsoft's download center - referring to the recommendations as listing after running Windows Update, but not using Windows Update to download and install the files.

I have done this, because I want to be able to ensure I have ready access to the security updates, even when Windows 2000 is no longer a supported product and the Windows Update website no longer works for Win2K.

My question is this:

Does it matter which order you install the updates? It is aswell to restart the pc after installing each update when prompted - rather than installing say, five or six at a time?

Moreover, since I have noticed many of the updates contain newer versions of the same files - how can you be sure that the update process (whether manual or using Windows Update) leaves your PC in the best possible state - particularly with regard to these duplicate files?

Any advice/suggestions (beyond simply relying on Windows Update) would be appreciated.

Many thanks

linuxwannabee

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Neil Jones

Posted 02 May 2007 - 03:58 PM

Neil Jones

Member 5k

Member

8,476 posts

You should check individual updates as some of them will be roll-up update packs which replace one or more previous standalone patches.
General rule of thumb is install them in the order they were released. You don't have to restart after each update, not if Windows Update is anything to go by.

linuxwannabee

Posted 02 May 2007 - 07:05 PM

I did install Roll-Up 1 and found that when I went to Windows Update, all 50 odd MB of additional individual critical updates still came up.

I reviewed the technical bulletins from Microsoft to judge which ones were paramount to install, and which were advisory.

All of the files that continually came up whilst installing these updates, one in particular was very common:

sp3res.dll

I checked out version numbers of replaced files and it seems that I now have the most current one in the active system folder - the remainder being archived.

This was my worry - if you installed the updates in a random order I thought it might be possible to end up with some of the earlier versions and therefore vulnerable files to be resident in the active sytem folder!

Is windows update so sophisticated it can juggle files around, with only one restart? Is there a resource any where on the web which lists the important system files replaced by critical updates, with the correct version numbers that should be active?

Manual install sounds okay in principle, but seems a headache in practice - but what are we supposed to do, once an OS nears it's end of support?